happy birthday CORY

Happy birthday to CORY!!!Eight years ago… smile… what a great kid he is! and eight years old is a big year! so i wanted to make sure that this year, this party would be one that he would always remember! we started talking about it so long ago it seems like, which is SO out of character for me… we settled on a pirate theme, and all got excited about having a cool treasure hunt and stuff. For my ‘a year to remember’ class on big picture scrapbooking, I challenged everyone to throw a party! So this was mine (well, one of them!)I went a little crazy on this one, but I have to admit, I had a blast!The party started at 5pm- this worked out great cause the light was perfect for photos and we were planning on dinner and watching a movie outside after it got dark!When the guests arrived, everyone got a pirate tattoo! And then ‘geared up’ (went a little crazy at oriental traders!) with pirate bandanas, eye patches and most importantly- gold hoop earrings! Eric and I created a pretty authentic looking treasure map and eric did an amazing job of hiding the 4 different ‘finds’: 1. Skull rings that we hid on a skeleton hands… complete with jewels that I glued in the eyes 2. Gold coins 3. Swords 4. And the grand prize… a treasure chest piñata that was full of candy! So much fun! After they killed the piñata, they jumped in the (freezing cold) pool… I had some games planned, but the energy level was off the charts – so we just let them play. The sun started going down, and we started a fire in the fire place out by the pool, and had dinner. I got all chicken drumsticks from KFC! (arrrrg… pirate food). While the kids warmed up and dried by the fire, we opened presents and then had dessert. Instead of cake, I made brownies and we made a custom skull and cross bones stencil so I could use powdered sugar to create that pirate image! I loved how it turned out… we also had some root beer floats- cory’s fav! By this time, the sun had gone down, and we turned on “HOOK”. All the kids sat on the trampoline and we projected the movie onto the side of the house. It got a little cold, and they had high blood sugar! But all in all, they had a great time! i will admit, I did too! I thought it was so fun. Luckily, I had a lot of help pulling the whole thing off. The kids did a great job cleaning up the house and yard, em got the groceries, chanel helped with creating all the last minute decorations and final touches, as well as the treasure maps. And eric’s mom got the kids out of the house long enough for us to get set up, the treasure hunt all ready to go and picked up the KFC! (whew…..)I just have to share a few photos… especially for grandma and grandpa K and aunts and uncles that couldn’t be here… COLLIN would have LOVED this!This one will go down in history!

It looks like everyone had fun! When my kids were little and having parties I think I always had as much fun as the kids did! And yes, Oriental Trading is awesome, one can spend way too much money there on party goodies!!

What a great DAY...that looks like the party of the year!!! What a good Mom/Dad you guys are!!! Collin will be excited to look at these pictures! Glad it was such a fun day. Sad we were not there to celebrate too.

WELL DONE, CAPTAIN. Looks like a lot of work, but worth it to give a child that one special day. Happy B-day Cory. Boys R so much fun! Wishing you many more happy years. Heidi, we almost bought an acre lot near you one yr...makes me wish we had. Husband wanted an irrigated lot so we could make our own soccer field. I really like the desert! CUfriday